The Limit
by Create-tion
Summary: There's always been a constant need to supply new Enforcers under Sybil to replace the dead ones. However, the circumstances surrounding their employment, if you can call it that, are always in the gray area. How will this new Enforcer chalk it up against the others? Can he hold his own?
1. Make the Cut

Kado was only partially invested in the situation evolving in front of him. If he hadn't have lost the clear hue on his pass a few years ago, he wouldn't have been here to begin with. However, as it stood, his choices had left him where he stood. Kado moved a step back shuffling his toes deeper into the crevasses of his boots. It was a game of survival at this point. He knew better than to let his eyes flicker up at the scene unfolding. The first person to flinch would be the next victim. The slums were a good way to avoid street scanners but an awful way to live, but it beat the hell out of a treatment facility or some stupid therapeutic sessions. There was a brief gurgling noise before the room went silent.

Kado put his hands in his pockets and kept his head down beneath his hoodie.

"You going to go run your mouth kid?" The man sneered drunkenly coming closer. Kado didn't move. He didn't flinch, not even when he man raised the small hand knife to the boys throat. Kado, almost imperceptibly, shook his head. Soft locks of vibrant fiery hair dangled in front of his eyes hiding them.

"Damn straight you won't boy." He snapped pressing the blade against his throat. The blade was cold. It bit into his throat with intention of death and Kadi felt the fear radiate outward from his body. He was sure the old man could smell it on him.

"Killing that snot won't bring you any satisfaction. He's not worth your time. There's a hot chick over a block though, caught sight of her walking into a bar. Might as well try to pick her off if you're in the mood for some fun before the kill. The boys too pretty." A man smirked waving his hand in the air from a table he'd been sitting at.

"Ah you're right." The man sighed swiping the blade cleanly and clinically across Kado's throat. He flinched backwards and his hand shakily moved, instinctively to where the small but non lethal cut had been made.

"Kids too damn young. Where did you see that girl?" He turned to continue speaking with the other man.

Kado felt the small welling of blood as his fingers enclosed his own throat. It was mechanical. He was lucky to be alive tonight and he knew it. He pulled his hood tighter up around his distinctive red mop shielding him from the freaks living in the slum around him. Kado had never been like them but he hadn't had a choice. His clouded psychology pass as a teenager had taken that choice from him. No, that hadn't been right. Sybil had taken that from him…that system which was generated had taken his future.

Kado slunk backwards into the shadows of the room far from the fluorescent lights flickering overhead. Home. He needed to get back to his hole in the wall makeshift apartment he'd thrown together over the last year.

The damp cloth of his sweatshirt wasn't really settling enough to sedate his worries. Kado didn't have any proper medical supplies to patch up and bandage his throat. As it stood, his chances of getting an infection were a little high from holding a dirty stained sweatshirt over his open wound. He shut his eyes and buried his head into his knees which were cramped up against his chest. His body was tired and he was too young for it to bare this much of a burden. His mind ached for a reprieve from this desolate hell hole and yet it was the only place that he could even remotely find of comfort. A simp street scanner in the city would pick him up and sentence him to a high level treatment facility he instant he stepped foot into any city street.

By the time the bleeding had stopped, Kado had already laid down nestled between the shafts metal aluminum of his makeshift bed. It had been an old hotel room he'd found near the outlying perimeter of the slum block. No one had been living inside it, or most of the rooms anyway, and he'd add the majority of his bed and one dresser from prices of falling structure of other buildings around. It wasn't much, but he only had a few shirts anyway. He bribed an elderly lady with cigarets down the block to do his laundry, because she's one of the few who had running water and soap. Kado felt his eyes begin to fall shut finally into the fitful sleep he knew he'd give into.

There was a rupture of an Indisputable sound of a weapon that Kado knew. It had been one of the last sounds he'd heard as he'd turned his back on the city and run. It was the sound of a Dominator blowing a non-lethal paralyzer at thin air. He jerked upright feeling the heavy hammering in his heart. Were they targeting a true criminal or was it someone innocent like himself? Kado got to his feet feeling the pressure building in his chest. An Enforcer could easily be here for him just be same as any other criminal. Of course, it could be an Inspector as well. Kado drew up short after flinging the door to his room open.

"Get back!" Someone shouted haphazardly running past him. He shifted his weight back, hood falling down, and his eyes grew wide.

"Shuinicko, Kado. Crime coefficient 143. Dominator set to non-lethal paralyzer. Trigger is now unlocked. Please aim carefully and subdue the target." Akane listened as the Sybil system spoke to her. She sighed and put the dominator down from the kids face. He wasn't part of this mess or the person they were looking for at the moment.

"Ginoza, keep going!" She shouted down the hall after the enforcer she was in charge of. She glanced back at the kid with wild red hair.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear your crime coefficient ok kid? Just shut the door and get back inside the room." She smirks gently at him.

Kado nodded with his hand shaking on the knob.

"Th-thank you." He whispered as she took off running after the enforcer.


	2. Pretty Boy

Kado was sitting on the wall overlooking the reservoir at the edge of the city. The wind whipped wildly through the alley mussing his hair into his eyes. He knew he should have cut it, but honestly, it as a good way to hide. When people came at him like last night, it meant that he was able to shield his face from them. If they couldn't see him, his eyes or intentions, then they'd leave him alone. Eyes had always seemed to be the one thing that gave someone away and his were a statement. From early on Kado had learned to keep his eyes hidden. When he'd first ran away from everything he'd been younger, about thirteen. He'd been too young to understand the kind of world that would await him here. He'd been too young to know that there were people who'd pay and kill to get their hands on an innocent little kid. He hadn't known that there were grimy people out there who'd craved for a little bit like him with wide emerald eyes and beckoning fiery hair. Kado had learned the hard way that being pretty was a ticket to being passed around the slums like a dog being sold. He'd learned like a dog to keep his head down, mouth shut, and to pass through rooms and places using the back door.

Hoodies had become his best friend. He'd learned to keep them up over his hair and to keep his bangs well over his eyes. He'd also taken the time to invest in stealing a set of headphones and an old wrist communicator. He'd programmed it to jack the city net without being traced and gotten a hold of a music station. He lived most of his nights laying on his bed listening to music. Kado dreamed of living inside the city…of living inside a home and having a real job. He'd always wondered if there had been something, anything he'd have been capable of beyond this slum. He'd wondered if when the city had gone absolutely to hell a few months ago, if that had been his one chance to run from this future as well.

There had been this guy, he'd come to the slums once, some white haired philanthropist. He'd been looking for a few men to help with something, some people he'd said that were willing to die for a cause. Kado had been in the room that night. He'd remembered the cold calculating glint in that mans eyes. Kado had known to stick to the shadows silently. The man with the white hair had come to him…he'd asked him to join. Kado had retreated. He'd answered no and left. After the city had gone to hell, he had been glad he'd said no. As he sat looking out over the water and the slum now, he hated that he'd said no.

Part of Kado wondered if it would have given him freedom. He could have died in the fight with the CID or at least stopped running from the street scanners. He'd have been put inside a facility to be given treatments and locked away for the rest of his life. He wasn't sure if that was a problem anymore. He was tired. Kado ran a shaky hand through his hair shivering as the music he was listening to changed an octave higher. Music was one of his only reprieves now. He loved music. He loved the rich underground vibe pulsing from beneath the city. It was hope, hope that people wouldn't just lay down and take the Sybil system forever. An image flitted through his mind…of the CID agent last night and not only her, but the Enforcer that had been with her as well.

He saw the taller man running past him, the weight of his trained gaze unfailing from whomever he'd been tracking. He hadn't even given Kado he time of day. It had been as if Kado hadn't existed. It was as if the man had completely ignored his entire existence. He'd never felt that before. Kado had never had the weight removed of someone not recognizing his physical appearance for something they either wanted to own or wanted to simply desecrate because they could. A small feeling wormed inside his gut as he retraced the outline of the man going past him. He was sharp and angular, a tight jaw with high cheeks. His eyes were narrowed and concentrated but there had been a softer edge to the pupil. Something inside that man wasn't so far gone that he didn't care about anything. He still had a heart. Kado understood that ability to be sterile but ache inside. You couldn't let others see what was happening below the surface.

"Where have you been?" A voice shouted over his music. Kado sighed and shoved his navy hood back to reveal his face to his only friend down here.

"Does it matter?" He asked prying his teal headphones from his ears. The sun blared off his wavy shaggy locks in an almost blinding manner.

"Word in the slum is that you got cut last night. Are you okay?" His friend asked walking over to the edge of the wall to flop down beside Kado.

"I'm…fine. I'm alive." Kado responded pulling his knees up to his chest. He wrapped his arms around his baggy cargo pants pulling them tighter.

"That's too bad…" His friend, a boy named Hide, grinned stopping just behind Kado's back.

A twinge of fear struck down Kado's back…

"Hide, don't…" No one was a friend here, Kado knew that, but Hide had been around since he'd come here. He'd been there the whole time, he'd shown him how to survive here.

"There's a real price on your head Kado. I'm sorry man…but…but it's just too much for me to pass up on. I can live comfortably on what the guy is offering me for you."

Kado couldn't make a move. Any movement he took right now would get him killed faster he didn't even know what kind of weapon Hide had at his back now.

"Hide please don't." He whispered curling his toes in his shoes. Kado was trying to assess the situation and what his options were. If he jumped, he'd die, it was too high. If he came at Hide there was an evenly possibly chance he'd die. He chanced a glance over his shoulder, shifting only minimally.

"I've made up my mind about this old friend. Just do me the favor and stay still." In that one small moment, Kado had seen the weapon that his friend was wielding against him. A small hand gun, five maybe six bullets. There was enough of a moments hesitation as the two boys locked eyes, just enough, that Kado was on his feet. He shifted and ran directly at Hide rushing him to throw him off guard.

He wouldn't die without a fight. Two shots went off instantly, as Kado slammed his body against Hide, the boys crashed to the ground. Kado scrambled jamming a hand over the arm holding the gun to try and pin it as he rained his fist down over Hide's face. The boy let go a grunt and shot his knee up into Kado's side growling. The boys rolled with the knee and Hide made it on top of Kado. He straddled the redhead and angrily wrapped his hands around his friends throat tightening. In the scuffle, the gun had skittered from Hide's hand, but it wasn't out of reach. Hide was so angry he'd forgotten about the gun altogether. He'd been sure that Kado would just let him attack. Kado felt his airway become restricted and he tried to quickly suck more air down as his friend closed his breathing off more.

"Die already!" Hide screamed above him.

Kado felt panic well up inside him.

Not here…not now…

His fingers clenched around the metal he'd been claiming for and he brought it shakily up.

Bang.

Hide's body collapsed against him.

He was dead.

Kado took in a ragged breath as his lungs screamed for fresh air.

"This is the MWPSB. Drop the gun and stay where you are!" Someone shouted. Kado heard footsteps approaching him on he rooftop. He dropped he gun.

There wasn't a point anymore.

"Stay on your back with your hands down or I will use the Dominator on you."

The voice sounded so far away as Kado's eyes felt heavy. He faded into black.


	3. Something Great

_The white haired man had come back. Kado hadn't moved from his room, he'd holed himself up, praying that the man would leave him alone. The problem was that word around the block pointed to something Kado didn't even want to think about. It was an omen into his old life. They'd whispered that the man had paid for Kado's time. That man had bought him, easily, and sooner rather than later he'd be here. Kado knew he should run, but where? This man was scary…he'd find him no matter what. There wasn't anywhere this guy couldn't find someone that he wanted and he had money. Money could get you whatever you wanted most places, but here it bought something even more devastating. It bought people and this strange shrewd man had bought Kado._

 _There was a terrible churning feeling inside his gut, deep within his stomach._

 _He hated this feeling._

 _He hated being sold like an animal._

 _There was a knock on he door._

 _It was a light tapping, like the back of someone's knuckles were just grazing the metal._

 _Kado flinched._

 _I've flooded his veins as he thought about the mans eyes cascading over his body the other night._

 _It wouldn't be any different than before._

 _It would hurt…_

 _The knock died against the silent wind through the hallway and the knob to the door turned. It cringed against the rusty bits of the door._

 _It opened._

 _Kado griped his knees and then closer tucking his chin on their tops. He'd pulled his hood up shielding his face and allowed his shaggy red locks to furrow his eyes from direct sight. He sat curled against the place where the walls met beneath the crack in the ceiling that let cold air and moonlight through._

 _"Well, it's not hard to find you, now is it?" Shogo's voice was soft. It was gentle against the quiet night._

 _When Kado didn't respond the man smirked. He rested nimbly against the doorframe, his hip cocked leaning into it. His arms folded in a slight manner that suggested poise and breeding all rolled into one._

 _"You're every bit the beauty they say you are." He plied himself away from the frame and began the descent towards Kado._

 _There was nowhere to run._

 _Kado knew what was coming._

 _"Answer me." Shogo whispered as he drew near the bed. Kado felt his lungs go flat. He couldn't stand it. He didn't want someone's hands on him again, he didn't want someone's breath against his skin. A fissure of fear trembled over his body._

 _He flinched._

 _The man reached forward with a sudden certainty that shocked Kado. He was determined to find purchase in what he sought. His fingers snapped into Kado's jaw, gripping it there, before jerking his chin upright._

 _"I cannot simply be held responsible for all the small talk young man." His eyes narrowed glaring down at Kado._

 _"For those whom have tongues shall bear witness to his honor." He chuckled. "Are you in awe of me Kado? Are you speechless?"_

 _"Your power is a farce." Kado spat in a timber hiss. His voice was small but his mind was racing._

 _"Ah!" Shogo tugged Kado's jaw tersely before releasing it. He brought his hands together in an exaggerated polite clap as if the timbre of Kado's voice pleased him. "You can speak." He grinned._

 _"Just cut the shit. Get whatever you want over with." Kado snapped. His fear brought out anger and anger masked the pain. The pain of what he was sure was coming._

 _"You want to cut the unnecessary meaningless drama?" Shoo took another step forward allowing his knee to balance on the edge of the crumpled shifty bed. "Fine. I am offering you a chance out of this insufferable pit that you've wound up in boy. I'm offering you a chance to assist a select group of individuals and myself to embark on enlightening this society."_

 _"Wh-what?" Kado couldn't comprehend what was being said._

 _"Help me take down the Sybil system Kado. Help us destroy the very machine that took away your future." He brushed his element fingers past Kado's cheek and they traveled into his hair._

 _"I…I don't want too." Kado whispered. Shogo's fingers graced the bare inside of his neck,curling backwards to ebb against the nape._

 _"Is that your true answer? Is that what you feel deep within your heart boy?" He gripped the hair suddenly tugging Kado's head backwards. Pain rocketed through his body and he gasped. His eyes snapped open as Shogo hovered over him._

 _"Are you content loving this life?"_

 _Kado shivered, his eyes lingered on the straight blade balanced near his face._

 _"I…I hate it. B-but…but I don't want to destroy everything. I just want to be left alone." His words were solitary and sad. Shogo felt a nerve within his own body plucked._

 _"It's too bad you know." He drew the blade up against Kado's throat. "I can't help but feel, that in another time or place, our two identical minds…could have been something truly great."_

 _Kado felt the sterile bite of the blade into his skin._

 _"And those eyes…they are a sight to behold child. Eyes are a gateway into your soul. Let me tell you what I see in yours Kado."_

 _Blood bubbled gently under the knife from the angled pressure being applied._

 _"I see a boy yearning for freedom, a boy that's caged. I see a boy who's scared and tired…but the most pressing measure of importance that I see within those electric mossy gems of yours Kado, what I see…" He paused sharply clicking the knife shut again. He tugged the boy forward as he leaned further in. Tendrils of his pearl locks fell over his shoulder caressing Kado's jacket._

 _"I see a boy with no way out. I own you. You will do what I want until I have no further use for you."_

Kado jerked upright gasping. He sucked in cold sloppy breathes as his mind reeled. He was gripping the thin medical sheet over his waist until his knuckles turned white.

It had only been a dream. That man, Shogk Makishima was not here. Once he focused his breathing, he realized he wasn't in his room. He wasn't in the slums. He wasn't in a place he recognized.

Kado sighed his shoulders rolling in slight defeat. After all these years, after everything he'd gone through, it was for nothing.

Kado was locked in a treatment facility controlled by Sybil.

He'd lost.


End file.
